#64 – Desdemona’s Building A Rocket Ship
The Pleiades are also called the Seven Sisters, as Jimmy mentions in his song lyrics, but are known officially in astronomy circles as Messier 45. It can be found just a bit to the north-west of the constellation Taurus, has a bluish glow, and is 444 light years from us. That seems like a long way away, but it’s actually one of the nearest star clusters to Earth. It is quite visible to the naked eye, and is stunning through a telescope, or even something as simple and easy to use as a pair of binoculars. It shows up in myths and legends across our globe and has many more names than the few that I have mentioned. Its prominence in world culture makes it unsurprising that it makes an appearance in Jimmy’s music and plays a starring role in the life of his Desdemona.